Lift and dowel for ladies&#39; shoes



July 3, 1962 P. BRAUNER LIFT AND DOWEL FOR LADIES SHOES Filed Jan. 23, 1961 FIG 4 INVENTOR.

A TORNEYS United States Patent Ofilice 3,041,744 Patented July 3, 1962 3,041,744 LIFT AND DOWEL FOR LADIES SHOES Pincus Brauner, 81 Hamilton Ave., Havel-hill, Mass. Filed Jan. 23, 1961, Ser. No. 84,415 3 Claims. (Cl. 36-34) This invention relates to high heel ladies shoes and more particularly comprises a new and improved dowel for retaining lifts on the heels of ladies shoes.

In the construction of ladies shoes having extremely thin heels that are currently fashionable it is common to employ a dowel in the form of a nail to retain the lift in place. When plastic lifts are used, the long nails preferably are provided with a specially formed head having a plurality of claws which mechanically grip or bond to the lift material. The claws prevent the plastic lift from being pulled off the nail should the wearer catch it in a crevice while walking.

The one-piece nails with the specially formed heads are quite expensive as they require special handling on the part of the nail manufacturer during their production. It is necessary for a dowel and lift manufacturer to stock a number of sizes of different lengths of nails and, therefore, the high cost of the claw headed nails is compounded for him due to the inventory requirements of different nail lengths. The problem of inventory costs is multiplied again in those instances where different sizes of clawed heads are required, as well. Heads of different sizes are necessitated by different heel thicknesses.

The primary object of my invention is to reduce sharply the cost of maintaining a full inventory of various lengths of nail-type heel dowels.

To accomplish this and other objects, the nail-type heel dowel which I have invented includes as its most important feature a separately fabricated steel eyelet assemblable on the head of a specially designed and lower priced nail to provide a dowel functionally the same as the claw-headed nail of the prior art described above. The nail itself has a rather small shoulder just slightly larger in diameter than the stem of the nail and is provided with an outwardly flared head. The eyelet is composed of a generally barrel-shaped body and a plurality of claws, hook-shaped in cross section, that extend from one end of the barrel in a smooth outward curve of approximately 90 and terminate with the ends of the claws disposed parallel to the barrel body. The inner diameter of the barrel is slightly greater than the diameter of the nail stem and slightly smaller than the diameter of the shoulder and head of the nail. When the specially designed nail is inserted in the eyelet and the shoulder is forced into the eyelet barrel, a force fit results which maintains the nail and eyelet in permanent engagement. The heel lift made of plastic is molded over the eyelet and a firm mechanical bond is formed between the eyelet and the lift by means of the claws. It is particularly important that a good mechanical bond be formed between the plastic and the eyelet, for when such materials as polyurethane or other plastic are employed as the lift material, no other bond is created between the metal and the plastic. While it may be possible to obtain a chemical bond between the plastic and the metal by employing certain types of lacquers as a coating on the metal, this process is expensive and, therefore, better omitted.

These and other objects and features of my invention will be better understood and appreciated from the following detailed description of one embodiment thereof, selected for purposes of illustration and shown in the accompanying drawing, in which:

FIG. 1 is an elevation view, partly in section, showing a high heel of a ladies shoe constructed in accordance with my invention;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged elevation view, partly in section, of the lift and dowel employed in the heel of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged exploded elevation view of the dowel shown in FIGS. 1 and 2; and

FIG. 4 is a bottom view of the eyelet shown in FIG. 3.

In FIG. 1, a ladies shoe heel 10 is shown composed of a body 12 having a flared upper end 14 and a narrow elongated shank 16 terminating at its bottom in a lift 18. The body 12 of the heel may be composed of an outer shell filled with some plastic material or may be formed in some other way. The particular manner in which the heel body is manufactured forms no part of this invention except that the particular heel material may determine whether or not my dowel .is usable with a particular shoe.

The lift 18 is retained on the heel 10 by means of a dowel 20 which extends upwardly through the elongated shank 16 of the body 12 of the heel and is generally aligned with the heel axis. The 'dowel 20 is comat 34 in FIGS. 2 and 3.

posed of two parts shown in FIG. 3. A nail 22 forms the body of the dowel and is generally of the same configuration as nails used to retain steel lifts on ladies heels. The dowel 20 also includes an eyelet 24 which is mounted over the shoulder 26 and under the head 38 of the nail 22.

The nail 22 includes an elongated stem 30 having a central portion 32 longitudinally serrated as suggested The nail as originally fabricated has a stem 30 of normally uniform diameter but after initial fabrication is serrated at its central portion which results in an enlargement of the stem diameter. The shoulder 26 is slightly larger in diameter than the serrated central portion 32 of the stem and may also be serrated as suggested at 36 in FIG. 3. The head 38 on the end of the shoulder 26 serves as a stop for retaining the eyelet 24 on the shoulder.

The eyelet 24 includes a generally barrel-shaped body 40 terminating in a plurality of claws 42. Three claws are formed on the eyelet 24 shown in the drawings. The claws 42 are rolled outwardly and back in the direction of the body 40 of the eyelet so as to form a hook-shaped retainer for a material cast on the eyelet. The inner diameter of the barrel 40 is made slightly smaller than the diameter of the shoulder 26 of the nail but the inner diameter of the barrel is large enough to slide freely over the serrated central portion 32 of the nail stem 30. Substantial force is required to force the eyelet over the nail shoulder 26 to the position suggested in FIG. 2. When so mounted, the force fit between the inner surface of the eyelet body and the surface of the nail shoulder 26, coupled with the serrations 36 formed on the surface of the shoulder, firmly hold the two parts together.

The plastic lift 18 is molded over the eyelet 24 after the eyelet is assembled on the shoulder 26 of the nail 22. The lift may be made of such material as a polyurethane or any other extremely durable plastic material.

It will be noted particularly in FIG. 4 that the claws 42 are spaced apart as indicated at 44 to provide zones in the lift where the plastic is relatively thick between its outer surface and the barrel-shaped body 40 of the eyelet 24. It will be recognized that if the: claws were not spaced apart, but rather a single claw was formed about the full periphery of the body as by rolling one end, the lift would have only a very slight thickness about the eyelet at its lower end which would permit the lift to tear or pull from the eyelet without too much stress being applied to it.

While the claws 42 are spaced apart to allow for a greater lift thickness at spaced intervals, at the portions 44 the barrel is rolled outwardly somewhat to provide some gripping action between the lift material and the eyelet. In FIGS. 3 and 4 the end of the barrel 40 from which the claws 42 extend is shown to be rolled or flared outwardly through an arc of approximately 90, and the claws which extend from the edge of the flared end turn through an arc of approximately an additional 90 to lie parallel to the barrel body. Thus, a mechanical bond exists about the full periphery of the barrel, albeit the bond strength is greater at the location of the claws 42.

To better aiford the reader a full understanding of the relative sizes of the parts, some typical dimensions of the parts will be given. The nail may be approximately 1%; to 22 in length and the diameter of the stem at the unserrated portions such as the end 46 and the neck 48 may be approximately 0.135". The diameter of the central portion 32 of the body after serration may be approximately 0.140" while the shoulder diameter may approximate 0.152". The diameter of the head 38 at the flared end may approximate 0.185". The eyelet 24 may have a diameter of 0.146 and a wall thickness of about 0.016". The overall diameter of the eyelet between the outer surfaces of opposite claws 42 may be approximately 0.280.

In the introduction it was suggested that by making the dowels in two parts as disclosed herein appreciable savings may be realized over the cost of one-piece clawheaded nails. The cost of the special nails with the eyelets disclosed herein is approximately one-half that of the cost of one-piece claw-headed nails. This advantage is multiplied by reduced inventory requirements particularly when a variety of head diameters is necessary.

Having described my invention in detail, those skilled in the art will appreciate that numerous modifications may be made of my invention without departing from its spirit. For example, it is possible to vary the shape of the claws and their number without departing from the spirit of my invention. It is also possible to enhance the bond between the lift 18 and eyelet 24 by using lacquer compatible with the plastic used without departing from the spirit of my invention. In view of the modifications which may be made, I do not intend to limit the scope of my invention to the single embodiment illustrated and described. Rather, I intend that the breadth of this invention be determined by the appended claims and their equivalents.

What is claimed is:

1. A dowel for ladies shoes comprising a nail having a stem with a cylindrical shoulder at its head end, an eyelet having a barrel-shaped body mounted on said shoulder and generally coextensive in an axial direction with the shoulder, said barrel-shaped body flaring ou wardly at its end adjacent the head end of the nail, and a plurality of claws extending from the flared end of the barrel-shaped body away from the stem and each turned smoothly from that end toward the other end of the barrel-shaped body.

2. A dowel for ladies shoes comprising a nail having a stem with a shoulder at one end, an eyelet having a body fitting tightly on the shoulder, said body being flared outwardly through a curve of approximately at its end away from the stem, and a plurality of spaced claws extending from the edge of the flare of the end of the body and smoothly turning from that edge approximately an additional 90 so that the free ends of the claws are substantially parallel to the axis of the nail and extending in a direction away from the flaredend of the body and toward the stem of said nail.

3. A dowel for ladies shoes as defined in claim 2 further characterized by a lift molded over the eyelet and shoulder of the nail.

France Mar. 7, 1960 France July 4, 1960 

